What do you do when your students turn in a paper that was clearly not written by them?

Hmmm. I teach preschool, so I might not be the best source of info for a question like this, but I went to college with someone who needed a lot of help to get through the written assignments and I talked to her a lot about plagiarism and it seemed to work. Is this a repeat offender? What grade is this? If these are young students who might not really understand what plagiarism is, I think I would address the subject with the whole class, then pull the offender aside and tell them that you KNOW that they did not write their paper but that you would like to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they did not know any better. Tell them that you will take X points off for a late paper, but that they may take 2 days to re-write the paper rather than failing the assignment.

Since I teach very young children, I would love to hear your comments on my solution! Email me or post your comments please!

I am an 8th grade English teacher, and I start the year off with a lecture on plagiarism. I tell them that I google papers when something does not seem right and that they should consider this a warning to not do it. I also tell them how much trouble they can get in, and how it gets even worse as they get older.

When I read a paper, and notice that the student’s word choice is more advance than what they usually write, I google the a few lines of the paper. I also scan through the first three pages of the google search because kids are becoming smarter and know that most teachers only check the first page of a search.

If the paper is plagiarized, I call the student out on it, especially if I found it in a search. I give them the option to rewrite it, with the highest grade being a 60. I also call the parent/guardian and inform them. If I can’t prove it, I am at a lose and my hands are tied.

I teach at the middle school level…I think the key here is that you have to make sure you have discussed plagiarism to start with. If you start the year or project with a discussion on what plagiarism is and why they can’t do it…then a grade of F is acceptable…I also show the students the original work and send home a copy of both the students paper and the original work for the parents to sign…However, by high school I would assume that students should already know better….

My husband is a high school English teacher. He goes over plagiarism at the beginning of the year, gives the students handouts about how NOT to plagiarize, shows the students in class using real papers how to properly cite sources, and gives the students lots of lab time to work on their papers and ask questions. He still gets entirely too many plagiarized papers each semester.

If you can catch it outright by finding the true source of the work on the Internet, print it up and keep it with the paper. Hopefully you’ve already established a policy about plagiarism. It’s time to put it into place. 🙁

If you can’t find the work on the Internet but know that someone other than the student wrote it, confront the student. Show them exactly which parts in particular you find troubling and wait for them to fold. They usually will, often saying they didn’t know what they were doing was cheating.

If you can’t get the student to admit to having plagiarized and you can’t find any proof of it, there’s not much you can do other than go over the paper with a fine-tooth comb and find any and every mistake possible.

Personally, I do not teach. However, I have two friends who are teachers (one who teaches in science to 7th graders and another who teaches U.S. history in a high school). Both have complained numerous time about the integrity of their students. The friend teaching middle-schoolers is generally rather lenient. I know she’s one to hint at problems, see if the student(s) correct those problems on their own, and only act as a last resort (which generally involves failing students on that paper).

The other friend is not nearly so lenient. If he can prove that the student has cheated then he immediately fails them. This makes sense as high school students are meant to be preparing for the “real” world where such behavior can have dire consequences.

Personally, I think it depends on their grade. If they are older and you are 100% positive that they have plagiarized, fail them immediately. Second offence and notify the school’s principle. However, younger students should not be handled quite so staunchly. Give a class lecture, speak with the student in private (maybe giving them a chance to rewrite the paper), and only resort to severe punishment if the behavior continues.

You do want to be sure that the student is cheating though. Nothing will make a child or teen hate a teahcer more than false accusations – especially false accusations that are acted upon.

1) have a meeting with the child’s parents and the principal of those school and discuss the reasons why this happened. The student has a shortened amount of time to redo the paper, and until then is given a 0 for the paper. If its a repeated offense-suspension-expulsion-and put on permanent record.

2) I don’t teach…i’m just starting college, but this is a basic idea of what my school did. Actually this may be too lenient-some teachers fail a student for an entire semester and they have to repeat the year.

I attach a copy of an advanced google search with a copy of the original work and who it was done by. I attach a copy of a definition for plagiarism. I give him/her an F and tell him/her the next time I will report them to the office & principal. Plagiarism is against school rules. I had one teenage girl turn in photos done by her boyfriend from a year back, as her own for a final project. She wound up flunking the class. All my students are warned at the beginning of the semester that I check all work for plagiarism and the consequences.

You take them aside and let them know you are aware that paper was not written by them and if they continue turning in papers like that you will have to speak to their parents or you will have to fail them. This is not acceptable. I am not a teacher but that is what I would do if I was.

I’m not exactly a teacher,

but what my past ones did was talk about it before we had to write something

or like at the begining of the year

and then if it happens

the grade given is an F.

I would have them work on things in class. If they do things on their own, I wouldn’t give those assignments as much weight.